San Diego East County Backcountry - Pine Valley and Campo

We spent the day on Saturday exploring around the southeastern part of San Diego County, mostly Pine Valley and Campo. Heather and I were joined by Fred, Sheri, James and Laura. Our first stop was for breakfast, at Major's in Pine Valley, on old US 80 (the main east-west route before I-8 was built). When we came back outside we found a couple of Shelby Cobras parked in front.

These things looked fast just sitting there. "Objects in mirror are losing".

Our next stop was the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo. They are running rides on their restored 1932 Model A Railbus on Saturdays in January. The rides don't go very far, about a mile or so east from the depot, then about the same distance west where they drop you off for a visit to the Gaskill Brothers Stone Store Museum.  This railbus was built in Fairmont, MN in 1932. It's 15 feet long, weighs 6,000 lbs. and is powered by a 4-cylinder 40-hp Ford Model A gasoline engine. It has four forward and four reverse gears, and it's really loud in there. The driver mentioned that they found out the hard way that if they run it in 4th gear it doesn't charge the battery, hence they generally don't use past 2nd.

The Stone Store building was constructed in 1885, after an earlier wooden version was raided by banditos in 1875.  

The railway museum has a huge collection of old engines and cars of all types. 

Here's the interior of an old U.S. Mail car.

There is quite a bit to see in Campo. During WWII the area was the site of Camp Lockett, which was both a cavalry training camp and a prisoner of war camp. Italian prisoners built a small shrine to the Virgin Mary that can still be seen nestled in the rocks off of what is now Sheridan Road.

We also stopped at the Motor Transport Museum, which is housed in the site of an old feldspar mill just down the tracks a ways from the railroad depot. Heather and I didn't stay long enough to shoot any pictures, as we needed to get back in time for the Booker T. Jones concert Saturday night. Click here for some images from a previous trip to the Motor Transport Museum.


Click here for more images from our little Saturday road trip.